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Christ on the Cross Adored by Saints Thomas Aquinas and Catherine of Siena (Recto); Saint Dominic with Saints and Worshipping Nuns (Verso)

Lorenzo d'Alessandro da San Severino

European Art

This is a typical example of the two-sided panels carried in fifteenth-century religious processions. Such objects were regularly handled and exposed to the elements. On one side, the theologian Thomas Aquinas and the mystic Catherine of Siena, who holds the heart that Christ gave to her, flank the Crucified Christ. On the reverse, Saint Dominic holds a stem of lilies and spreads his cloak protectively over a group of kneeling Dominican nuns and novices, suggesting that this panel belonged to a Dominican convent.

The letters “IHS” in the background on both sides are a Christogram: a monogram derived from the first three letters of the Greek name of Jesus, iota-eta-sigma.
MEDIUM Tempera on two panels
  • Place Made: Italy
  • DATES ca. 1490
    DIMENSIONS 17 1/8 x 12 3/4 in. (43.5 x 32.4 cm)  (show scale)
    INSCRIPTIONS Inscribed recto left: "Bene scripisti de me Tomeus" Inscribed recto right: "Crea in me Deus"
    COLLECTIONS European Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 41.894a-b
    CREDIT LINE Gift of Mrs. Felix M. Warburg in memory of her husband
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Lorenzo d'Alessandro da San Severino (Italian, School of the Marches, documented 1462-1503). Christ on the Cross Adored by Saints Thomas Aquinas and Catherine of Siena (Recto); Saint Dominic with Saints and Worshipping Nuns (Verso), ca. 1490. Tempera on two panels, 17 1/8 x 12 3/4 in. (43.5 x 32.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Felix M. Warburg in memory of her husband, 41.894a-b (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 41.894_side1_SL1.jpg)
    IMAGE side, side 1, 41.894_side1_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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